Added circular laser bolts. More pleasing on the eye than rectangular lasers.

Friday 18th May 2012

Putting some long-overdue work in to Distant Orbit. Game’s design is taking shape nicely.
Will implement save / resume functionality.
An early performance demo of the game can be seen on You Tube. Distant Orbit performance demo.

Wednesday 11th April 2012

River Raider to do:

Tug boats spray bombs on later levels (no more than 5 bombs)

Add extra life chance at set score intervals

Add a couple more level designs

Monday 2nd April 2012

River Raider ideas to try:

Vertical facing boat that fires missiles directly at the player (done)

Player energy bar rather than 1 hit = 1 life (rejected)

and bugs to fix:

on playerDeath() continuing to run through staging() which is pointless – just scroll the river and what was on it at the point the player crashed out (done)

And a screenshot from the current build:

Wednesday 28th March 2012

River Raider game notes:

vary boat speed with finger slide up and down (rejected)

aliens crossing the river (rejected – just move within the river space)

river obstacles (mines etc)

restart level at last destroyed bridge (done)

Monday 26th March 2012

River Raider to do:

tighten up collision

river graphic tearing

rapids artwork

grassy bank artwork

copter artwork

bonus item design and implementation

“alien” movement

Thursday 22nd March 2012

Implemented the tree/obstacle collision and decreased the player’s heart count. This is essentially player lives but I don’t break up the play. Instead I set Santa to be immune for 5 seconds whilst the player moves him out of harms way.

Wednesday 21st March 2012

“Shotgun Santa” game has structure and graphics.
A few “bits” that need attention:

tree / obstacle collision

improve alien movement

address over-use of orange range in colour

Thursday 15th March 2012

Have finished work on Dungeon Adventure but now need to figure a better way of releasing the game on this web site.
Started work on a new game earlier.

Wednesday 14th March 2012

Need to add the ability to NOT re-draw all gems when player loses a life. Store gem index in a simple array with a flag for ON or OFF. i.e. collected or not. It’s really tiresome to have to retread the entire dungeon when all but 2 gems have been collected.

Considering taking Castle Quest in a slightly different direction by adding an RPG element. I’m really not sure how this might work just now but since I am controlling a Wizard it could be a case of controlling spells and managing Mana levels. It’s a heck of a change for something that is 95% complete just now. Needs some serious thought. Right now it’s basically PacMan in a fantasy dungeon setting.

Friday 9th March 2012

Fixed some annoying bugs / glitches on Castle Quest including the painful:

Sprite start-frame not being set correctly for monsters when changing direction

Took a look at Rich’s (Photonstorm) new game today. It’s going to help turn people around to mobile web gaming. Great little game.

Having some major re-thinks about the way I implement levels in Castle Quest. Might consider mixing it up a bit and having some strategy to the dungeon layout.
Why must I keep having these ideas when I’ve got so close to completion ??

Changed the way the freeze potion affects the monsters. Previously the freezePotion property was attributed to the player but this is just wrong. Instead attributed to each visible monster such that I can apply effects to them. Works a treat !

Wednesday 7th March 2012

Had a play with some monster graphics last night with varying degrees of success. The angle at which the game is played is causing me an issue. Although it’s a top-down game and the player’s Wizard is presented as if faced “almost” head-on I can’t seem to find the right presentation for the monster sprites. I took my lead from Gauntlet for the Wizard so will look to that game again for inspiration.

Spent some time looking at Tutankham on YouTube. In many respects this was an inspiration for Castle Quest. Am now considering the teleport option from this game. Could be fun ! Update: implemented the teleporters. They’re a great addition to the puzzle :)

Scribbled some thoughts down for improving the monster movement / behavior in Castle Quest.

Tuesday 6th March 2012

I’m getting a number of emails from Google telling me that my AdWords campaigns are performing pretty well. I specifically target Free Mobile Arcade Games and derivitives thereof.

I really should consider a budget for AdWords each month. Trouble being that the last £100 (donated by Google) was exhausted in under a week and I just don’t create enough money through advertising. £100 spent certainly didn’t generate £100 return.

Had some thoughts regarding Castle Quest‘s structure on the way in to work. May now consider the unlocking levels approach made famous by Angry Birds.

Saved out to localStorage this could be a neat feature for gamers to quickly pick up and carry on rather than simply starting at level 1. Need more hours in the day to be implementing this stuff.